Opening EDB files

Have a problem opening a .EDB file? We collect information about file formats and can explain what EDB files are. Additionally we recommend software suitable for opening or converting such files.

What is the .EDB file type?

The primary association of the .edb extension belongs to the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) Database File (EDB) format and file type. ESE, also known as JET Blue, is a proprietary database engine and a search, storage, and indexing technology developed by Microsoft and widely used in many Microsoft products (Active Directory, Exchange, Windows Search, and others).

An .edb file is an ESE database. ESE is supported in all MS Windows OS'es since Windows 2000 through its API, and the EDB format is employed for various search ("Windows.edb" in "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows") and system update ("DataStore.edb" in "%SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore") index files.

﻿

As ESE is also the core storage engine in MS Exchange, .edb files are used here as mailbox database storages (commonly, the "Priv1.edb" and "Pub1.edb" files) maintained on the MS Exchange Server. Besides MS Exchange, there are multiple tools, free and commercial, that allow to access MS Exchange EDB databases, repair file structure, and extract information from such .edb files.

Alternatively, the same .edb extension also happens to be associated with the EViews Database File (EDB) file format and type. EDB is a proprietary file format developed by Quantitative Micro Software (QMS)—now, IHS, Inc.—for EViews, an advanced statistics and econometrics tool. EViews natively uses the EDB format to save its database files (.edb). The use of the EViews software is required to open/access an EViews database.